Watsonville men sentenced for fatal 2009 gang stabbing

SANTA CRUZ -- Two Watsonville brothers convicted in the fatal, gang-motivated stabbing of a 22-year-old Santa Cruz man in 2009 were sentenced Tuesday.

Martin Flores Holguin, 23, was sentenced to 37 years to life in prison by Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Timothy Volkmann on felony charges of first-degree murder and trying to dissuade a witness. Holguin's brother, Irvyn Ulisses Flores, 22, was sentenced to 42 years in prison on felony charges of voluntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury and street gang crimes.

Flores originally was charged with first-degree murder and faced life in prison. But in a plea deal accepted on Sept. 3, Flores was able to plead to less serious charges in part because his older brother pleaded guilty to the murder charges, said Art Dudley, attorney for Holguin.

On Jan. 2, 2009, the victim, Vicente Christopher Moreno, and his fiancee boarded a bus from downtown Santa Cruz to visit a friend on the Eastside. Flores and Holguin separately boarded the bus and shouted gang slurs and made gang signs at the couple when they spotted Moreno's red clothes.

While the couple got off the bus at Soquel Avenue near Frederick Street without responding to the slurs, Moreno made an obscene gesture to the brothers when they shouted more gang slurs from the bus window.

In the preliminary examination, Moreno's fiancee said she and Moreno were gang affiliated, which she described as hanging out with gang members.

After crossing Frederick Street, the couple saw the brothers coming after them and Flores had a knife in his hand, prosecutor Steve Moore said.

A fight ensued between the men and Moreno was stabbed four times in the chest. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Flores was arrested near the scene 10 minutes after the attack. Holguin was arrested two days after the attack at a campsite along the Pajaro River.

Flores and Holguin are documented gang members with a history of gang activity dating to 2006 and 2005, respectively.

The attack was partially motivated because the brothers perceived Moreno as a rival gang member because of his red jacket, prosecutor Steve Clark said.

"This is a senseless murder simply because the victim was wearing the wrong color on the wrong day at the wrong time," Moore said in court.

Moreno's fiancee was in court for the sentencing.

Before she read a statement in court, she said, "I've been ready for five years."

She described how the attack on Moreno left her a broken person for several years.

"You can spend the rest of your lives in prison and not know my loss," she said.